ED Nature Watch

[sheilarose]

I think this is the post from Ianr that you missed, Sue:

">Cyrena Dulwichiensis

It looks as if there's at least one in the Illustrated London News, Saturday, March 24, 1860 [www.ebay.co.uk]. I could stick it on my next Colindale visist list."

[Sue]

I'm still none the wiser.

Could somebody explain to me, in words of one syllable preferably, what Cyrena is? I've just googled it, which was no help whatsoever.

[DulwichFox]

Cyrena a girl's name is a variant of Cyrene (Greek), and the meaning of Cyrena is "sovereign queen".

[edhistory]

Sorry, Sue.

John

[Sue]

Thanks John!

DulwichFox, you are correct but that information wasn't much help in understanding its relevance to a thread entitled ED Nature Watch :))

[BrandNewGuy]

8.20 this morning near Dulwich Hospital: two parakeets noisily mobbing a large grey heron that was flying slowly eastwards...

[Sue]

Can anyone reassure me that just because I haven't seen any froglets for a week doesn't mean they may not be hiding in my garden somewhere?

Or has Dave the ancient cat who sits in my garden and seems to think I am a great friend of his finally managed to catch something?

No froggies either in the tub or in the surrounding plants :-S

[The Minkey]

Hope your frogs have just gone walkabout, Sue. They spend a lot of their lives outside water so could be lurking under cover somewhere nearby. Fingers crossed for you.

I was really happy to see a flock of sparrows mobbing the feeders this week. Last summer, they spent a lot of time throwing hedge parties but haven't seen or heard much of them at all this year, just arriving in ones and twos, so to see 20 or so all at one time was great.

[Sue]

Not only have I not seen a froglet for ages, even when watering the garden, but I haven't seen a bird on my feeder for weeks either :-S

Something is eating the fatballs,however, so maybe it's the mysterious rodent I spotted earlier ......

I do have quite a lot of ground cover so hopefully the froggies are lurking somewhere .... they were so tiny that it would be hard to spot them unless they were actually hopping, but they did use to (grammar?) stay near the tub when they were out of the water. Maybe they've now ventured further afield.

[Ridgley]

My daughter and I was just coming out our house yesterday where she saw a cat which caught a a mouse and killed it in his mouth my daughter was a bit shocked to see nature at work.

[Sue]

There is a tree down Copleston Road (outside number 119) which has shed a load of the most amazing looking "seedheads", for want of a better word, which look like strange sea creatures. There are piles of them in the road and on the pavement, or at least there were at lunchtime today!

They have three nuts of some sort in each one, about the size of large acorns.

Does anybody know what it is?

I thought it might be a cobnut, but I've googled cobnut and I can't come up with anything which looks like the things I saw. Another passer-by said she thought they might be hazelnuts (and I've now discovered that they are more or less the same thing).

Anybody? I've brought three home with me, but the thought of getting a picture of sufficiently low res to upload on here almost makes me lose the will to live ..... :))

[elloriac]

They sound like hazelnuts - the woman (whose name I've forgotten) who did the grow your own veg talk for the Dulwich Veg meeting brought a seedhead/bunch/thingy along, and it sounds like it might be your 'creature'. She said there were lots of hazelnut trees round East Dulwich. They are ripe when they fall off the tree.

Does this page help? http://www.arborday.org/programs/hazelnuts/consortium/types.cfm

[The Minkey]

Ah, I didn't know hazels could grow as trees, I've only ever seen them in shrub form. Hmmm, lucky you if they are cobnuts. If they are still green, you can open them easily with your teeth - very tasty.

[Sue]

elloriac Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Does this page help?

> http://www.arborday.org/programs/hazelnuts/consort

> ium/types.cfm

xxxxxxxx

The ones I picked up don't really look like that, I think I will have to try to upload a photo of them, but not today!

I could go and get a leaf and check that out too.

Minkey, I'm scared to try and eat one in case it's something poisonous!!!

[elloriac]

Cobnuts? http://yaymicro.com/stock-image/cob-nuts/2327275

Was it the tree at the corner of Brenchley Gardens and Kelvington? If so, I picked some up yesterday & ate them, with no ill effects thus far :-)

Now I'm not sure whether they are cobnuts or hazels, but I think the pods/bunches look like the above image of cobnuts, though when I've bought them from a fruit stalls they haven't looked like that, but perhaps the ones on Brenchley aren't fully ripe yet...

[The Minkey]

Elloriac: Sue said it was on Copelstone Rd. I live on Kelvington and I haven't seen a hazel nut tree, I shall have to go take a look..

[Sue]

I passed the tree again on Saturday night and picked a leaf, will try to ID it now, this has reminded me, it's got a bit dried up though :))

[Sue]

Yeh it looks as if it's a Hazel. Though the bracts (?) around the nuts are much fancier than any pics I have found online.

Do nuts ripen later if they're still green? Many of those which had fallen to the ground were green.

[Sue]

Went back yesterday on a scavenging expedition, but many of them had gone ....

Have just seen a froggie in my garden, hurrah!! So those of you who kindly told me they would still be around somewhere were right!!

It seems to have doubled in size since the last sighting .....

:)-D

[jimbo1964]

Saw a Hummingbird Hawk Moth in our front garden yesterday. Beautiful creature.

[Sue]

Lucky lucky you. Only time I've ever seen one was in Venice - I didn't even know they lived over here.

[Magpie]

Not sure if this right thread - is there another one on wild food in East Dulwich, but on Goodrich road - there is a line of trees producing fruit which looks like Cherry's - can anyone confirm edibility or otherwise?

[Sue]

They could be crab apples - some varieties are small and bright red.

Do they look like this?

BTW I had to throw all my hazelnuts away - none of them appeared to actually have any nuts inside :-S

[civilservant]

I've started to find hazelnuts in the flowerbed while weeding (we were away much of August and the garden's disappeared into a tangle of green stuff). No hazel trees near us, so I must have disturbed a squirrel's stash. Sorry, squirrel!

And I promised sometime ago to find out what if anything we could do to help hedgehogs.

Here is a link to a new initiative called Hedgehog Street http://www.hedgehogstreet.org/pages/welcome-to-hedgehog-st.html I think it's been set up by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society . Junior Civilservant has just signed up to get a pack to find out how to be a Hedgehog Champion!

[Sue]

I saw what I think was a heron on the roof of a house in Crystal Palace Road on Saturday lunchtime!

If somebody around the area of 109 Crystal Palace Road has a pond in their back garden, they might want to check that their fish are still in it :-S